A Great Purpose, A Great Identity
Notes
Transcript
The Great Work
The Great Work
Nehemiah 6:1-3
EXP
Nehemiah is approached by messengers of his enemies, and asked to come meet with them. He sees that they are likely to harm him, and instead of meeting with them, he refuses.
Key to Nehemiah’s refusal is that he is “doing a great work,” and that he cannot come down.
“What? You guys again? Come on, I don’t have time for this.”
Nehemiah knew their ulterior motive. They wanted the work to stop, and they knew Nehemiah was key to that. Nehemiah wasn’t going to be fooled by their attempts on his life. He knew the importance of his work.
Nehemiah had a great work in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. But think about it, what goes into the building of a wall? Laying stones. One after the other. Building gates. Hanging gates. Think about it, the work that goes into the building of a wall is quite… menial. Of course, the final product is great. But even still, you know the current population of “Old Jerusalem,” as it’s known today, is just below 37,000 people. Not a giant town.
What makes Nehemiah’s work so great was not its size, or what made up the task. What made Nehemiah’s work so great was the God for whom he was working, and how he chose to go about the work.
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And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
For you and me, Christians, how do we know if the work we are doing is great? I want to submit to you that it’s not so much what you do that makes your work great. God has given us all different abilities, talents, and callings. What we do is just normal life. How you do what you do, and who you do it for are what make your work great.
Are you a manufacturing worker? A stay-at-home mom? A teacher? An employer? Great. What you do makes you no less an important servant of the Kingdom of God. What is different about Christians is not that they are all supposed to be pastors or missionaries. Rather, what makes Christians different is the One for whom they work. And how they go about doing their work… Not as one seeking self-gain, but selflessly and for One much greater.
The greatness of your work is not determined by what you do, but by who you do it for and how you go about doing it. So when you compare yourself to Nehemiah, the great brick-layer, be reminded that it’s not the wall-building that’s as important as the God for whom the building happens.
Too many times, we think of preachers or missionaries as having the greatest callings and the greatest work in the church. This is not true. I know greater men and women in here than some of the pastors who’ve traded the soul of their ministries for fame and celebrity. Sure, pastoring is a great work. Giving your life to the mission of making Jesus known is a great work. But so is being ordinarily faithful to God. The great work is less about what you do, more about who you do it for and how you go about it.
Crushing the Lie
Crushing the Lie
Nehemiah 6:4-14
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For Nehemiah to continue his great work, he had to know that his identity was firmly rooted in truth, and
Nehemiah had these lies coming his direction over and over again. The Scripture says that Sanballat had sent to him in this way FOUR times! The lie kept coming at him. And every time, his answer was the same.
There was a fifth time a lie came. This time, it was that Nehemiah was seeking to become king of the Jews and incite rebellion against the Persians.
Sanballat’s lie was filled with half-truths and could-be-truths. This is what makes rumorous lies so deceptive.
APP: Watch for how the Enemy abuses could-be-truths in YOUR life to deceive you- Especially about people you love and interact with on the daily.
“Lies can win a battle, but integrity will always win the war.”
His response was simple: “You’re out of your mind!”
So Nehemiah keeps at the work, unfazed.
A new plot is hatched. The enemies think they can infiltrate the people of Jerusalem and get Nehemiah that way. So this prophet Shemaiah comes onto the scene. WALK THROUGH VV. 10-14
It’s likely that Shemaiah isn’t coming out of the house. It’s also reasonable to assume that Shemaiah never came to see Nehemiah. This could have been a prophetic act or just a disloyalty to Nehemiah.
Nehemiah was not a priest — Was not invited into the Temple.
Nehemiah was not a coward — Would not go into hiding.
The whole thing was a sham to ruin Nehemiah’s reputation and standing with the people.
Nehemiah prays against his enemies.
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Nehemiah saw right through this false prophet’s attempt to discredit him. It took integrity and resolve to do this.
Nehemiah was so aware of his own character and the importance of his character that it *clicked* for him that to follow Shemaiah into hiding in the Temple was an immediate wrong.
Surely there were countless other places for Nehemiah to hide… Pretty easy to sniff out the foul play here. He wasn’t gullible.
I read up on what makes someone gullible this week. Some would assume that being gullible is the inevitable result of being ignorant, and someone coming in to fill the void of that ignorance with knowledge. However, gullibility isn’t so much about being ignorant… I’ve met PLENTY of ignorant people who are pretty stubborn. And you have too! If you’re a wife in here, you’ve met at least one, right?
Gullibility is fueled by desperation. When Shemaiah approached Nehemiah about going into hiding, he was seeking to play on Nehemiah’s desperation for his own life and livelihood. What Shemaiah did not expect was a man who was willing to give everything he had for the mission and purpose God had set on him.
So if you want to be rid of your gullibility, you need to figure out what it is you’re desperate for. Acceptance… A shortcut to a hard goal… That’s why there are so many fake weight loss hacks out there, by the way. We’re desperate to lose weight and look like the images that get thrown in front of us of beautiful people that are photoshopped to trim their fat anyway. They’re playing on your desperation.
And, it turns out, the objects of your desperation will tell you a lot about your integrity. Are you desperate to get people to like you and feel accepted? Are you desperate to look a certain way? Are you desperate for a husband or wife? All of these desperations will cause you to cut corners and miss what God is calling you to do. What Nehemiah was propositioned with could have easily been conceived of as, “Oh, yeah, I could hide for one night and then come back out the next day and continue the work.”
But Nehemiah was not desperate for his life. He was desperate to please God. Therefore, he would not cut corners.
Some of you are desperate for respect, so you toss out insults and demean the people around you.
Some are desperate for acceptance, so you do what it takes to fit in, even if it means going against what God would have you do.
Some are desperate for a sense of security, so you attach yourself to the first person of the opposite gender that comes along, regardless of whether you know it’s right or not.
Some are desperate for money and success, so you step on people to get where you want to be.
Desperation comes in many forms and sizes. And it undercuts character. And listen, in our society, there’s not much that we really need to be desperate for. There are people who are hungry, but by-and-large, we are a wants-driven culture, not a needs-driven culture. Therefore, most of our desperation is rooted not in needs, but in desires.
Because of this, we need to recognize those desperations in light of our identity in Christ. The answer to desperation is identity. In Christ, we are made new.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
This means new desires. A new heart. Notice the language: the old HAS passed away. In Romans, Paul lays out more of this struggle saying that he knows the flesh no longer holds dominion, but yet we still live in it. So our spiritual selves have become new, yet our flesh is still with us. So when we battle against sin, it is the flesh we must conquer.
Instead of submitting to his fleshly desires for security and safety, he submits to God’s will.
It’s never too late to stop submitting to desperation and begin submitting to Jesus. He welcomes you with open arms.
So be released from the slavery of desperation! Trust in Christ for your security!
Perseverance Brings Progress
Perseverance Brings Progress
Nehemiah 6:15-7:6
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Nehemiah chose to persevere in his work on the wall.
Again, the work on the wall was laying bricks, building and hanging gate doors.
Perfect example of what perseverance truly is: doing the next right thing.
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Do you want to persevere in Christ? It’s simple: Do the next right thing.
Do you want to persevere past your sense of desperation? Do the right thing. And then do the next right thing. And the next. And the next.
Maybe you need a t-shirt, or right it on your mirror: Do the next right thing. That is the key to perseverance. No secret sauce. No planner can get you there on its own. It’s literally taking one foot and putting it in front of the other. Nehemiah’s wall was built brick by brick, stone by stone.
When temptation and danger and distraction came Nehemiah’s way, he chose to do the next right thing each and every time.
Again, what fueled him to be able to persevere and continue on was not just a drive to do right things. It was his fundamental identity as a man of God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Maybe today you hear about Nehemiah’s changed identity, and how it propelled him to seek after God. Propelled him to do as God had commanded, and most importantly, how his identity made God pleased with him.
Maybe you don’t much feel that way… Maybe you’ve set up an identity for yourself that falls short. Maybe you see yourself as someone whom the world does not care for. If last week, we talked about Main Character Syndrome, and that didn’t really resonate with you because you feel like you’re so minute and miniscule and in the background… Perhaps this week the message you need to hear is that God cares for you. He sees you as valuable. As worth loving. And if you submit and surrender to Him, He will give you a new identity, one of worth and righteousness.
That happens through Jesus Christ.